PRIORITIES
- Approve Foundational Investment: the Federal Government should approve the investment proposed in WAVE’s 2024 pre-budget submission of $24.85 million over five years to establish essential infrastructure within Australia’s skills system to address gender inequity. This investment, representing just 0.05% of the annual VET budget, promises significant economic and social returns.
- Reframe the VET Reform Agenda: shift the focus from technical inefficiencies and industry alignment to broader societal and systemic inequities, redefining VET as a driver of social justice, economic productivity and individual empowerment.
- Strengthening Equity Leadership and System Capability in VET: establish a Strategic Advisory Committee on Equity and Equality in VET, with gender equity at its core, to ensure diverse representation and to centre lived experience in decision-making. Implement a long-term Equity Blueprint to strength and leverage Jobs and Skills Councils as key enablers of change, setting clear, measurable goals and driving system transformation through pilot programs and policy reform. Strategic partnerships should be cultivated with expert organisations, ensuring sustained and meaningful progress toward gender equity.
- Modernise Data Collection: implement comprehensive gender-disaggregated data collection, develop tracking systems and provide transparent reporting on outcomes to drive accountability and inform policy decisions.
- Advance Gender Equality in Emerging Industries: using transformative approaches, integrate gender equality objectives from the outset into emerging industries like green energy and technology to ensure women's contributions are valued. VET policies must actively challenge stereotypes through curriculum design and public awareness campaigns.
RATIONALE
While gender-related reforms enacted in the last 3 years are welcome, the VET system is at a critical juncture, requiring a significant shift to address persistent and systemic gender inequities that hinder women’s economic participation and security. The National Skills Plan 2024 lists Gender Equality along with Closing the Gap as its top cross cutting national priority. In acknowledging progress, too often the adopted approaches are not designed to address inequity sustainably. Policy approaches must move beyond positioning women as the problem. A transformative strategic approach is needed to ensure that the VET system truly serves all women, all Australians.
Gender equality needs to be acknowledged as an economic imperative. It should not be sub-ordinate to other goals and/or treated as an “add on” in VET policy. It is essential that policy explicitly aligns gender equality objectives with broader economic and social goals. This involves evaluating if expenditure in other areas overshadows investment in gender equity initiatives, and reassessing trade-offs between advancing gender equality and maintaining private sector profitability.
There is clear gender segregation across training types and industries, with capital investment favouring male-dominated pathways. Women often experience different VET outcomes from men. A priority should be to dismantle structural inequities by establishing clear leadership structures that drive gender equality in VET and to enhance the capability for gender analysis in policy design and implementation. It is crucial to ensure policies and decision making actively challenge stereotypes through curriculum design and public awareness campaigns.
Equality in the VET system has been historically measured against male-defined benchmarks There is an urgent need to develop alternative metrics that prioritise inclusivity, intersectionality, and the lived experiences of diverse populations This includes implementing comprehensive gender-disaggregated data collection (including understanding how Fee Free TAFE policy is transformative) and reporting to inform evidence-based policy development.
The approach to defining and valuing skills is deeply gendered, systematically undervaluing capabilities in female-dominated sectors. Technical skills in male-dominated industries receive higher recognition and compensation, while complex skills in care work, communication and relationship building are labelled as “low-skilled”. A key longer-term priority should be to reframe how skills are valued, recognising the complexity of work in care, communication and relationship-building sectors, and ensuring that these skills are formally acknowledged and appropriately compensated. This requires moving away from male-centred norms in defining skills and measuring success.
The current economic framework overlooks the significant impact of unpaid caregiving and domestic labour, predominantly undertaken by women. Policies must recognise and quantify the value of unpaid care work in economic analyses and promote equitable pathways in VET to support workers transitioning from unpaid or informal caregiving roles.
Many VET policies assume a default student is young, male, and unencumbered by social or family responsibilities. This archetype should be critiqued and policies developed that account for diverse learner profiles and systemic barriers faced by marginalised groups.
Systemic Inequities: The VET system perpetuates systemic inequities that disproportionately affect women and those experiencing intersectional discrimination. This is evident in the undervaluation of skills in female-dominated sectors, where complex capabilities are mislabelled as low-skilled, leading to lower pay and poor working conditions
Gendered Participation and Outcomes: Analysis of VET participation data from 2015-2024 reveals persistent and significant gender-based disparities across training outcomes, field selection and participation patterns. Male participants report notably higher rates of positive employment outcomes (60% compared to 40% of female participants) and skill advancement (53% compared to 47% of females). These differences in outcomes indicate that even when women access vocational training, they face additional barriers in translating their qualifications into career advancement.
Occupational Segregation: Education data reveals stark gender segregation that closely mirrors traditional occupational stereotypes. Male-dominated fields include Engineering and Related Technologies (93% male), Architecture and Building (98% male) and Information Technology (85% male). Conversely, female-dominated fields are Education (93% female), Health (78% female) and Society and Culture (78% female). The apprenticeship and traineeship sector also exhibits pronounced gender stratification, with trade-based courses showing male participation rates exceeding 90%.
Economic Impact: Addressing these inequities is not just a matter of fairness, it is an economic imperative. The Women's Economic Equality Taskforce (WEET) final report to Government identified an estimated $128 billion in potential economic benefits that can be unlocked by improving women's economic participation. Continuing to undervalue women’s skills limits Australia's economic potential and social progress.
Policy Limitations: Existing policies, while well-intentioned, often use approaches that risk perpetuating inequity, or being blind to it. This limits the efficacy of current policy and funding programs to address gender-specific issues. The current system also errs on reinforcing male-centred norms and traditional gender roles.
Shaping Societal Norms: Policies play a key role in shaping societal norms. VET policies should foster identities that encourage non-traditional career pathways for all genders.
Structural Challenges: Systemic barriers are compounded by a lack of leadership driving gender equality in VET, insufficient capability for gender analysis, inadequate data collection and reporting and persistent workplace safety concerns. The time for incremental change is over. It is essential to move beyond "fixing women" to address the structural and cultural drivers of inequity.
By prioritising these key actions and taking transformative action to build a VET system that genuinely serves all Australians and unlocks the full potential of the workforce, Australia can create and build a more equitable, prosperous and innovative future.
WEL/WAVE
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